The invention relates to a security element, a security document with at least one security element, a transfer foil with at least one security element as well as a method for producing a security element.
Optically active security elements are used in particular on security documents such as for instance banknotes, passports, ID cards, check cards, credit cards, visas or certificates for both information and decorative purposes. Such security elements on the one hand increase protection against forgery, for example vis-à-vis modern color copying and other reproduction systems, and on the other hand can be easily and clearly recognized by the layperson, with the result that the layperson can clearly determine the authenticity of a security document equipped with such a security element and can thus recognize forgeries or manipulations.
For this purpose, security elements can have light-bending, diffractive structures such as for example holograms. These security elements offer the observer striking optically variable effects, for example when the security element is tilted. Optically variable thin-film layer elements which, at different observation angles, give an observer a different color impression for example are also used as security elements. However, such security elements are nowadays to be found on a multitude of security documents, such as for example banknotes, with the result that the layperson hardly notices them in everyday use, whereby forgeries or manipulations are less frequently recognized by laypeople in particular.